“Oedipus the King,” is a story by Sophocles that dates back from ancient Greek and tells the story of Oedipus, who became the King of Thebes. Before the story begins, we learn that Oedipus is leaving his home in Corinth to escape a terrible prophecy that he would be his father’s killer and marry his mother. Oedipus is described as a great and brave ruler from the beginning of the play because of his victory against riddling Sphinx, which led to saving the great city of Thebes. Oedipus is the protagonist character in the play, and his marriage, prophecy, and authority make his life dramatic and his fate a mystery, thus making him a dynamic character.
Oedipus is one character that experiences gradual changes throughout the play. In the beginning, Oedipus could see, but in reality, he could not “see” what was happening and how he was walking right up to the prophecy he was escaping from in Corinth. The character of Oedipus is introduced as a brave and confident ruler who cares for the needs of his subjects. He was able to save Thebes from the Sphinx curse and assume the role of the King, and he recognizes his abilities when he says, “I Oedipus whom all men call the Great” (685). The character of Oedipus s portrayed in a positive light in the beginning because he is a swift leader who takes action on the plaque to save his people, and the name such as “great” illustrates his qualities as a ruler. However, despite the positive attributes given to Oedipus, the end of the story ends with a tragedy, and instead of his name being correlated with greatness, it becomes a curse. Oedipus is a dynamic character because he loses his authority and positive attributes at the play’s beginning. He became a killer and cursed for killing his father and sleeping with his mother. Although he maintains his swiftness till the end, he loses his previous belief that he could escape the prophecy. He accepts that his life is out of his control which is different from the beginning when he leaves Corinth to evade the prophecy.
Oedipus is a dynamic character, and his role throughout the play changes significantly, influenced by his personality traits. In the beginning, Oedipus’ character traits include brilliant and excellent leadership personality traits because he was able to solve the Sphinx riddle and made Thebes prosperous. For instance, when Thebes is faced with a plaque, Oedipus responds, “We are in your hands; pains are most nobly taken to help another when you have means and power” (694). However, the personality trait does not offer an implicit role of the character to prove the futility of trying to escape fate. Oedipus’s character has been used to show that human beings’ lives are not based on their control, and fate set by the gods cannot be escaped despite an individual power or intelligence. The gods prophesied Oedipus’s life even before his birth, and his decision to run it by escaping Thebes is not fruitful because of his hubris and bad temper that leads him to fulfill the prophecy. The character of Oedipus plays a significant role in teaching the reader about fate but illustrating that an individual life is controlled by the gods or a supernatural power that is beyond our human understanding. Despite Oedipus being intelligent and a great leader, these qualities cannot save him from his fate. The character has been used to show the irony surrounding life itself by challenging the issue of fate and free will.
Oedipus’s fate is inevitable, which is evident when he hears that his father’s killers were traveling on the highway. He feels he might be the one who has killed him when the character says, “But if he speaks of a man traveling alone, then clearly the burden of the guilt inclines towards me” (709). Oedipus cannot escape his fate, and his initial thinking that free will existed and his actions and life were in his hands are completely shattered when he finds out that he was escaping in the direction that he was evading. Therefore, Oedipus’s character has been used to teach the reader that one can never change or escape from their fate, and Creon acts as the foil who contrast with the protagonist to illuminate his bad and good traits.
Oedipus is one of the characters who experience the most drastic and noticeable changes and growth throughout the lay. Firstly, the character is depicted as an intelligent leader who has compassion for the people of Thebes depicted when he says, “On Creon’s word I have sent two messengers and why the prophet is not here already” (693). However, Oedipus’s inability to control his hubris and bad temper lead him to kill his father and marry his mother, leading to his downfall. From a powerful King who was referred to as the “Great,” the character of Oedipus experiences tragic changes because he becomes desperate at the end, which leads to gouging his own eyes pit after he discovers the tragic prophecy has come to pass. However, the character of Oedipus also experiences positive change throughout the play because he finally accepts that his actions were not his but were out of the circumstances forced on him by the gods and fate.
Oedipus’s character remains the most interesting in “Oedipus the King” because of his versatile and drastic changes. Oedipus is a dynamic character because he changes from a respected and intelligent King at the beginning and ends up a blind and hopeless man whose name has become a curse throughout Thebes. Oedipus is a tragic hero because although he does a great job as a king, the gods and fate are not on his side, and the more he tries escaping from the prophecy of him being his father’s killer and marrying his mother, the more he finds himself fulfilling his fate. Generally, Oedipus, the protagonist, teaches the reader that fate is not something that a person, despite their power, status, or authority, can escape.
Work Cited
SOPHOCLE~ (c. 400 B.C.) Oediptcs the Ritig, trans. D. Grene. Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 1942
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